Kicking off

No - not dying... Starting a new project!

Tonight, I went to the kick-off gathering of our local NaNoWriMo participants. Although there are 170 on the website (locally), apparently there is no purge function, so a lot of those are from other years. Only about 30 are actually active this year. Of those, 12 of us managed to show up for what amounted to a pep talk and orientation.

There was one man in the room, an honest-to-God published author, and the rest of us were female. One high schooler, one first-year college girl, a teacher, a gal in her 20s, and the rest of us were women "of a certain age". Only two of us were first-timers. And of the two of us, I'm the only one who opened my mouth...

There were prize drawings (3 of 'em!) but I didn't win anything. That's okay. I already have what I need... My AlphaSmart arrives Thursday (the first day of writing); I've already got - and read - my NaNoWriMo guide book; and a plan. I'll win my own poster, thank you!

In order to win, I have to write at least 50,000 words between November 1 and November 30. December is considered clean-up month, so I don't have to edit myself - just sit down and let the story flow. I can fix it later.

We also have 4 write-ins scheduled during the weekends of the month. That's where everyone gathers together and writes. Talking is allowed, but it's mostly writing. I'm looking forward to doing those too!

Darling Man signed up - he's always full of ideas - and hopefully this will be the prompt he needs to get it down in writing. He didn't make the kick-off tonight, but I hope he'll make some of the other events.

I can't tell you how excited I am to be doing this. It's something I've always wanted to do and now, I officially make time to do it!

Wish me luck!